http://perihelionsf.com/1407/reviews.htm
Somehow I missed this. It’s my damn word count happiness, I guess. Anyway, if you get a chance, pop over to Perihelionsf and read Carol Kean’s wonderful review of Mark Capell’s book “Edyl: Island of Immortality”.
Filed under Awesome Indies, Reviews
A few weeks ago, an Awesome Indie asked if I’d be interest in beta reading his latest book. I happily agreed. It was wonderful, had me swiping madly with reckless abandon. And now it’s available.
Here’s the blurb:
It’s 2117 and the government has stopped reading your emails. It now reads your mind…
Every year, WOCO (the world government) nominates people to compete in the Edyl Olympiad. The prize? Immortality, and the right to live in the only place left in the world where the sun still shines — Edyl Island. But the competitors are being watched by a secret government division called The Reading Department to see if they’re worthy of that prize.
R77K is a thought reader on his first Edyl assignment. He has three targets: a rock singer, an athlete, and a mechanic. But one of them also moonlights as a contract killer. Why would a contract killer be nominated for immortality? All is not well in paradise.
The deeper R77K delves into the minds of his targets, the closer he gets to them… and to the hidden agenda behind the nominations. Edyl is a festering world of lies, corruption and strife, but defying WOCO means fighting off attacks from other thought readers, means giving up any last chance of his own immortality. Will he pay that price to save the nominees? And join the cause to put the world to rights?
EDYL – Island of Immortality is a dystopian view of the future, an intense mix of intrigue and drama in an epic tale.
Filed under Awesome Indies, Reviews
Harvey Click (possibly evil)
Please welcome the possibly evil Harvey Click to the Awesome Indies list, which is conveniently located on the left side of my blog. Each book on that side represents the finest that indie publishing has to offer: great editing, superb writing, and a wonderful story.
As I was saying: Harvey Click might actually be evil. He probably gasses his car up 6.66 gallons at a time, that’s how evil he might be. If you were to say “Harvey Click” in the mirror 100 times at midnight, on Halloween, nothing would happen because that’s just silly…but it would sure creep you out.
On the advice of Lindy Moone, I eventually got around to reading “The Bad Box.” This novel, hands down, is one of the finest examples of the horror genre I’ve ever read. It certainly stands toe-to-toe with a book I thought unassailable: The Exorcist (yes, the book by William Peter Blatty — read it, it’s great).
How about a closer comparison? “The Bad Box” is more like a Dean Koontz story in that it pits good people against irredeemable villains. It also has some of the most loveable and human characters I have yet to read in any book, regardless of genre. Several times, I found myself misting up a teensy bit, which is a big deal for a hunky guy like me. It turned out to be something stuck in my eye, though, so I’m still cool.
Let’s get back to the evil: the novel is dark. Very dark. But rather than relying on cheap thrills and/or legalized snuff (e.g., The Human Centipede), Click manages to expose the moral wasteland of what real evil actually is: ugly and sad and nothing more.
The book is not for kids, nor even kids at heart. It is dark literature with great depth, in a box, and it might just change you.
You’ve been warned.
Filed under Awesome Indies, Reviews
I woke up this morning, checked my email, and found a wonderful note from a fan living in L.A.
Steve Phelan is an actor who also does voice work for indies. He read my book back in March during the free promo period and reviewed it shortly thereafter.
This would have been perfectly fine, but he was in a studio the other day recording something and decided to record a tiny portion of Chapter 3 from “Kick” and send it to me. It’s one thing to read someone’s book, but it’s a whole ’nother compliment to read it and still be thinking about it two months later. Wow huh?
Apparently WordPress wants $20 a month to put audio files up, but I’m a wascally wabbit and think I can figure out another way, possibly using YouTube if it came to it.
In the mean time, here’s the link to Steve Phelan’s website, with his headshots and a few acting scenes:
Steve Phelan’s Site
** Update: here’s a link to the clip:
Heh, you know, this looks absolutely incredible. I’ve never read a book by Truant (except Write, Publish, Repeat), so this might be my first.
Fat Vampire By Johnny B. Truant
Plot:
When overweight treadmill salesman Reginald Baskin finally meets a co-worker who doesn’t make fun of him, it’s just his own bad luck that tech guy Maurice turns out to be a thousand-year-old vampire. And when Maurice turns Reginald to save his life, it’s just Reginald’s own further bad luck that he wakes up to discover he’s become the slowest, weakest, most out-of-shape vampire ever born, doomed to “heal” to his corpulent self for all of eternity. As Reginald struggles with the downsides of being a fat vampire — too slow to catch people to feed on, mocked by those he tries to glamour, assaulted by his intended prey and left for undead — he discovers in himself rare powers that few vampires have… and just in time too, because the Vampire Council might just want his head for being an inferior representative of…
View original post 132 more words
Filed under Reviews
Another hot tip from the Oracle of all things Indie, Lindy Moone. She hasn’t failed me yet, so looking forward to this sometime in the future, even though I “don’t read zombie books.” First time for everything.
This is my first book review in ages… but I just had to say how much I love this tongue-in-cheeky little book set in a “hormone-soaked” all-girls school. The narrator — an English teacher — doesn’t just have awesome language skills; she has guts and brains and knows how to use them.
What do you expect from a lady whose given name is Boadicea? For one thing, you might expect her to wield a mean field hockey stick and cricket bat. And she does.
So when the sexy new science teacher invites Boadicea out, who will end up keeping their “Braaiinnnns”?
“Chaps and chapesses” alike should be amused by all the drooling, oozing goings-on.
As for me, I give Victoria Leybourne’s novella 5 gold stars. Or diamonds. Or whatever.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Oh, and after I read the book, I invited her to contribute a story to the troll anthology. Nuf said?
Filed under Reviews
I recommend the article below, by Carol Kean, to anyone interested in reading a fascinating literary rant from a professional reviewer who reads over a hundred books a year.
In addition to being a great article, she actually mentions me (she read and reviewed “Kick” recently).
As Jim Butcher once said, “My gast has been thoroughly flabbered.”
http://www.perihelionsf.com/1405/article_3.htm
Filed under Just Cool, Reviews, Writing in general
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/906122854
Lots of animated gifs, I love it.
Filed under Reviews
The only way “Regulation 19” could have been better is if it was called “Regulation 20”. An incredibly memorable read, it mixes elements of thriller, mystery, sci-fi, and (possibly) fantasy. As Einstein once said, “When you mix sci-fi and mystery together and dribble in what may or may not be fantasy, you’ve got yourself a damn fine novel.” And I agree.
I’m not telling you the plot. The plot is a mystery, to be honest. That’s what’s so damn maddening about this book—I never knew where the story was going beyond what I’d just read. Every page brought new information. Every chapter was like this gargantuan mystery/thriller/sci-fi (fantasy?) looming above me, laughing, and taunting and saying, “Try again Mr. Smart Guy!”
Ok, quick point on the plot and I shall say no more: it’s about a town in Tennessee. Something’s happened regarding the town. There are good guys, there are bad guys, there’s a REALLY bad guy, and that’s all I’m going to give you. Except for one thing: one of the characters is named “Frank.” You learn this right up front, so that ain’t gonna help you.
P.T Hylton eschews both plodding pseudo didacticism and/or the emollient locution typifying some of indie-publishing’s more inchoate scribblers—and after you’ve read the book, I’m sure you’ll feel the same way. Furthermore, he writes like his ass is on fire. He writes so well he makes me want to slap my momma’s English teacher. P.T. Hylton’s writing is “invisible” – you don’t know you’re reading a book, you just know you can’t stop grinning and your wife’s given up on you coming to bed anytime soon. Hylton’s pacing is so maddeningly sneaky and miserly in the way he parcels out the juicy bits that I’m just a tad jealous of him. Everything in the book furthers the plot. Not a moment is wasted on nonsense because there simply isn’t time for that. If you go back and watch those Jim Butcher videos about scene->reaction->scene->reaction, Hylton seems to have channeled Butcher in the way he approached “Regulation 19”. When I interview him, I’m going to ask him about it. Also, he had near perfect editing. What’s not to love?
The characters in the story all had their own voices and motivations. There weren’t any talking heads saying stuff like “as you know, bla bla bla can run 60 miles an hour” or whatever. There’s also a sort of manliness to the guys in the book, which almost makes me think P.T. Hylton was either in the military at some point or possibly in prison for armed robbery. Probably a military prison. When I do my interview with him, I’ll ask him about his “jacket” (he’ll know what I mean).
P.T. Hylton reviewed my book, “Kick”. He also did a book giveaway featuring my book. I kinda wish he hadn’t done these nice things. I would have told him not to if I knew his book was gonna be so amazing. I’m telling you all this because I believe in full disclosure. Would I have read his book if I hadn’t followed his blog, if one thing hadn’t led to another? Probably not. There are simply too many books out there to choose from, and these days I don’t get as much reading in as I’d like (sorry James Patterson, I’ll read something by you one day, I swear). But I have read it, and on my honor I promise you this was one of the most memorable sci-fi/mystery/(possibly fantasy) books I’ve read in a long time.
One of the rules of the Awesome Indie Project is that if I know someone even slightly, or if they’re friends or whatever before I pick up their book, then I can’t add them to the list. This was meant to keep me from giving-in to the natural desire to help my friends. The problem is, awesome indies like P.T. Hylton get skipped over for the crime of being nice to me. I don’t want people to stop being nice to me or stop approaching me and saying, “Hey John, what’s up?” So I need to nix this rule. Just keep an eye out for the disclaimers, and give P.T Hylton a chance—he’ll blow your mind.
Without further adieu, I’m adding “Regulation 19” to the Awesome Indie list.
Filed under Indie Publishing, Reviews
I’m not sure if there are more to come for me, for this round, but here’s what I have so far:
Filed under Reviews
John L. Monk 